Surface Plasmon Assisted Directional Rayleigh Scattering

The origin of the Rayleigh scattering ring effect has been experimentally examined on a quantum dot/metal film system, in which CdTe quantum dots embedded in PVP are spin-coated on a thin Au film. On the basis of the angle-dependent, optical measurements under different excitation schemes (i.e., wavelength and polarization), we demonstrate that surface plasmon assisted directional radiation is responsible for such an effect. Moreover, an interesting phase-shift behavior is addressed.